Winning Walk

Psalm 119:165 “Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble.”

(Form Dr. Ed Young) Some years ago I was jogging through Houston’s Memorial Park, and took a painful fall. My problem was that I relaxed my focus on the path to speak to another runner. Before I knew it I had stumbled and thudded to the ground, gashing my head and face. As we move through the world, it’s vital we keep our eyes on God’s path. If we do that we need not fear stumbling. For the ancient Jews, that meant constant observance of the Law. But in the New Covenant, watching the path means keep our eyes on our Forerunner, Jesus Christ. 

Who Will Be Our God?

1 Peter 3:15 “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,”

Exodus 19:5-6 “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”

When Satan tried to get Eve to take the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, he put forth arguments that sounded convincing in her ears. He told her God was holding out on them. He said if they ate the fruit, they would be like God. He said God’s Word couldn’t really be trusted anyway.

There was something that Satan didn’t tell the first married couple. In disobeying God, they would be obeying Satan, making him their master. He knew that whomever we obey is our god. So the devil was not just offering Adam and Eve a bit of knowledge independently of God, he was offering himself as their new god. That is what he originally wanted as Lucifer, the angel of light. He wanted to be like God. We’re right back to the issue that caused the problems in the first place.

Deuteronomy 28:1-3 “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.”

Camouflage

1 Corinthians 2:10-12 “these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.”

I’m fascinated by the way animals camouflage themselves in the wild. There is a fish in the Pacific called the Merlet’s Scorpionfish (Neat name for sure!). Scorpionfish blend perfectly into one particular type of coral. You can be staring at this coral and thinking to yourself, “My, oh my, that’s unique and beautiful,” and you would have no idea you were looking at a fish.

There’s an old phrase that my wife loves to use: “It’s hidden in plain sight.” This refers, of course, to something that is apparently obvious but that people still miss. If you know there is a fish in the photograph of the coral, you’re better able to spot it. It’s still tricky, but, eventually, you’ll see it—because you’ve been tipped off that the fish is there.

The apostle Paul is saying in this verse that the same is true with God. No one knows what’s really going on inside God’s mind unless He tips us off and reveals it through His Word and/or His Spirit.  How does He go about doing that? 

What we need has already been given to us: the Spirit.

Everything you need to live your abundant life you already have. He’s already given it to you. It may be “hidden in plain sight,” but you know it’s there. The Holy Spirit is the Teacher who wants to show it to you.

Prayer

2 Kings 19:14 “Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord.”

Here is one of the best pictures of prayer in the Bible. Hezekiah is king over Israel when the cruel and powerful Assyrian army marches against them. Rabshakeh, the army’s spokesman, sends a threatening letter and tells Hezekiah not to trust in his God for deliverance.

Here was an enormous temptation and a trial, all wrapped into one little scroll. There is the imminent danger of being razed to the ground by the Assyrian empire; then there is the verbal prompting not to trust in God for a rescue.

But how does Hezekiah deal with this letter? He receives it, he reads it…and then he takes it straight to the Lord and spreads it before Him. What a wonderful picture of prayer! It is the spreading of our problems, our temptations, our struggles before the Lord in the face of every temptation to do otherwise.

Are you today wrestling with a temptation to sin that is threatening to conquer you? Spread it before the Lord. Is your heart weighed down with some terrible worry, or sorrow, or pain? Spread it before the Lord. Have you felt the weight of your guilt before a holy God for the first time? Spread it before the Lord.

No one has ever come to the Lord and gone away disappointed. Hezekiah did not, and you will not.

Stand Up!

1 Chronicles 5:22 “For many fell, because the war was of God. And they lived in their place until the exile.”

Warrior, as you fight under the banner of the Lord Jesus, observe this verse with holy joy, for as it was in the days of old, so is it now: If the war is of God, the victory is sure. The armies of God could barely muster forty-five thousand fighting men, and yet in their war with the enemy, they captured "a hundred thousand men," "for they cried to God in the battle, and he granted their urgent plea because they trusted in him."

The Lord saves not by many, nor by few; it is ours to go in Jehovah's name even if we are only a handful of men, for the Lord of Hosts is with us as our Captain. They did not neglect their weapons, but neither did they place their trust in them; we must use all fitting means, but our confidence must rest in the Lord alone, for He is the sword and the shield of His people. The great reason for their extraordinary success lay in the fact that "the war was of God."

Beloved, in fighting with sin in us and around us, with error doctrinal or practical, with spiritual wickedness in high places or low places, with devils and the devil's allies, you are waging Jehovah's war, and unless He himself can be defeated, you do not need to fear defeat. Do not tremble before superior numbers; do not shrink from difficulties or impossibilities; do not flinch at wounds or death; strike with the two-edged sword of the Spirit, and the dead shall lie in heaps.

The battle is the Lord's, and He will deliver His enemies into our hands. With steadfast foot, strong hand, dauntless heart, and flaming zeal, rush to the conflict, and the hosts of evil will fly like chaff before the gale.

Stand up! stand up for Jesus! 
The strife will not be long;
This day the noise of battle,
The next the victor's song:
To him that overcometh,
A crown of life shall be;
He with the King of glory
Shall reign eternally.

Promptness

Psalm 145:1 “The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season.”

 FROM THE FATHER'S HEARTMy child, I created time. Do I not have the right to decide what is the "proper" time for all things? I have never been late. What you perceive as tardiness or indifference, I call a purposeful delay — only because I have ordained perfect timing which you know nothing about. Whenever you call, I always answer. My line is never busy. When you seek Me, you will always find Me. Promptness is something I delight in showing to My children.

A GRATEFUL RESPONSEIn my impatience, Lord, I often cry, "Hurry up!" You are never in a hurry, yet You are always on time. Though I'm sometimes tardy, You've never missed an appointment. For Your patience with my grumbling, and for Your promptness in my stumbling, I give You thanks, Lord.

SIMPLE TRUTH

God has never failed to keep an appointment.

Encouraging Leader

God has chosen you to lead the way as an Encouraging Leader.

Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”